In the first post, I briefly described my creative session with children Doroteja (8) and Domas (5). In this and future posts, I will tell you how the drawings by these children, their interpretations and photographs inspired me to create a variety of ideas for a Neverland Portrait.
This sketch was started by Doroteja with purple and green colours. When I had to complete the drawings (that is the rule of the game), I saw the dragon’s head in this composition, so I drew teeth, eyes and ears.
I felt risky with this idea. Because dragons are almost as popular as unicorns, so there is a very good chance that the picture will look like a worn out cliché. On the other hand, making an original painting from a cliché idea for an artist is a great accomplishment. So I decided to take on this challenge and think about how I could create an original dragon.
The first idea that came to my mind was to make the dragon’s body out of abstract lines. I knew I won’t be able to draw the dragon’s body conveyed with correct proportions and in a good perspective on the first try. However, I took advantage of this lack of my skills and was not afraid to make mistakes. The abstract and scattered lines do not convey the body of the dragon very clearly and, for this reason, leave much room for the viewer’s imagination. If I had used a realistic style of drawing, I would have been sure that the sketch would look unoriginal, as there are plenty of drawings and paintings in the world portraying realistic dragons.
In addition, the art of abstraction is a legacy of modernism. Until the 20th century, artists were highly respected for their ability to create a highly effective illusion that would look not as paint on a flat surface but as a mirror or window into a real world. But with the advent of photography, artists had to rethink the meaning of their paintings in the world. Why try to paint a realistic landscape if you can take a picture of that landscape? Artists have begun to consider what painting can and cannot do in comparison to photography. Thus, in the 20th century, the use of various types of abstractions began to convey more clearly the idea that a painting can be not only an illusion of the real world, but also simply the paint on a flat surface.
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